1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to masks used to form interconnect solder bumps on integrated circuit chips and more particularly to an improved methodology that allows the mask images or openings to be made larger than could be made previously.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the manufacturing of integrated circuit chips, it is often necessary to form solder bumps to form interconnections to allow external devices to connect to the chip. Conventionally, various masks were used to deposit the conductive material to form the interconnect solder balls. However, for certain applications, these conventional processes have been shown to be inadequate for formation of the required mask image sizes. Therefore, the invention described below presents a new methodology of forming the masks that allows the mask openings to be made much larger than could have been made conventionally.